{"id":34370,"date":"2018-04-13T07:30:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T21:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=34370"},"modified":"2018-04-02T10:11:33","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T00:11:33","slug":"michael-sweet-of-stryper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2018\/04\/michael-sweet-of-stryper\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Sweet of Stryper"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cAs I was writing the album I was really trying to make sure that each song made its own statement, musically, lyrically, in terms of energy it was very important to me that every song stood on its own yet at the same time that we retain the continuity and it had a great flow from beginning to end that\u2019s important too.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release: Continuing a trend started with their 2013 release, “No More Hell To Pay”, Stryper’s 10th studio album, “God Damn Evil” sees the band offering up their heaviest release yet! Opening track, “Take It To The Cross” immediately shows you that Michael Sweet and company have zero intentions of mellowing with age. There are classic Stryper anthems, but with a modern heaviness and edge that carries the band’s sound into the 21st century and beyond. While only time will tell, pound for pound, this very well and truly might be Stryper’s best album yet.<\/p>\n

Outside of Boston in a town called Plymouth where the Pilgrims landed as he tells us, we gave Mr Sweet a call to talk all about Stryper\u2019s new album \u2018God Damn Evil\u2019, changes, thrash, their new bass player Perry Richardson, touring, the future, and much more.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve probably answered this a million times, can you tell us why \u2018God Damn Evil\u2019 represents and why this was the perfect title for this album?<\/strong>
\nWell my brother came up with the title a few years back and we didn\u2019t feel comfortable using it at that time, for a number of reasons. Fast forward to 2017 I re-suggested the idea of using the title, everybody loved it, we felt that it was relevant to the world that we live in now, the society that we live in now and was a perfect year to release an album with such a title \u2018God Damn Evil\u2019. Some people are confused by it thinking that we\u2019re just trying to be shocking and controversial or some people and some of our fans think we\u2019re swearing and we\u2019re just trying to be bad boys or whatever and it\u2019s not any of the above. The meaning of it is a prayer request to God from us asking God to condemn evil, God damn evil, it\u2019s a prayer and when we explain it that way it makes perfect sense to most people, they get it and the times that we live in, the level of evil that we\u2019ve seen in recent times obviously with the Las Vegas shooting, the most recent school shooting here in America, but worldwide we see it on the news daily. It\u2019s a good time for all of us to be praying and asking God to condemn it, so it\u2019s a powerful statement for all times, man.<\/p>\n

This at times feels like a completely different Stryper, there\u2019s stuff I\u2019ve never heard the band do on this album, so what if anything did you set out to do differently with this album compared to anything you\u2019ve released before?<\/strong>
\nWell we went into it with a different attitude, almost like a resurgence and a renewal within the band, obviously everybody knows or at least I think everybody knows that we have a new bass player, his name is Perry Richardson he used to play with Firehouse, and with Perry being a new member of the band and having this new sense of energy, a new level of energy that\u2019s how we went into the studio with that in our hearts, our minds, our souls, and I think it translates over to the tracks themselves as we would record everything we were really extra excited about doing so, and it comes through in the music . As I was writing the album I was really trying to make sure that each song made its own statement, musically, lyrically, in terms of energy it was very important to me that every song stood on its own yet at the same time that we retain the continuity and it had a great flow from beginning to end that\u2019s important too. I hate albums I don\u2019t care for albums that you pop in and every song kind of sounds the same, even though it\u2019s good and it sounds great but every song just kinda sounds the same. I\u2019m not a fan of those kinds of albums so it was important for us to really have a lot of diversity with this album.<\/p>\n

Talk about diversity, \u2018Take It To The Cross\u2019 is like a thrash song, it\u2019s amazing\u2026<\/strong>
\n*laughs* Well you know, man, the reason why we did that song is we had a number of fans over the years asking us specifically to do something really heavy that bordered on thrash. That was our answer to that, like OK, we\u2019ll do it. We enjoyed doing it and that was probably the most fun we\u2019ve had recording any of the eleven songs on the album that was the one that was extra fun because we just had a blast doing it.<\/p>\n

What about playing that one live, is that going to be hard to sing live?<\/strong>
\nYeah it probably will be but I\u2019ll be honest with you I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s an easy Stryper song to sing live. I think they\u2019re all kind of hard you know *laughs* they\u2019re all in that upper range, belt it out, the only time I get a little bit of a breather is when I\u2019m singing in a much lower range or I\u2019m not singing.<\/p>\n

You do it to yourself when you write them that way *laughs*<\/strong>
\nI know, I know, absolutely and I\u2019ll take full credit for it. Yeah I think that \u2018Take It To The Cross\u2019 wouldn\u2019t be any more difficult than singing\u00a0 I would think a song like \u2018God\u2019 or a song like \u2018Lost\u2019 I\u2019ll skim through it somehow, I\u2019ll figure it out and if I can\u2019t then I\u2019ll grab some girl in the crowd that can.<\/p>\n

Back to Perry, I was a huge Firehouse fan from day one and was stoked when he\u2019d joined the band, what has he brought to the band that you never realised was missing before?<\/strong>
\nJoy. We\u2019ve always had joy but he\u2019s brought a new level of joy to the band he\u2019s a really good person and he\u2019s got a smile on his face that kind of permanent up on his face and he\u2019s always smiling and it just feels like there\u2019s always hope and the world could be ending tomorrow and Perry\u2019s gonna tell you that it\u2019s gonna be OK. So that\u2019s first and foremost then you add to it his incredible bass playing, he\u2019s a really solid, amazing player, plays with his fingers and a pick and switches back and forth and is super solid, then he\u2019s a killer singer he\u2019s one of the best in the business singing the high harmonies and belting them out and got great pitch. He\u2019s got that rock look going, he\u2019s got all his hair and looks the part, dresses the part, he\u2019s a big fan of the band so he\u2019s really excited to be a part of this and that excitement spreads to us and makes us all excited.<\/p>\n

After a crazy couple of years what was the feeling like when this album was finally done and you were able to listen to it from start to finish?<\/strong>
\nIt was like to a degree a sense of justification because we\u2019ve been told and we\u2019ve heard by not a lot of people but some people that we should stop or it\u2019s not going to be the same, or it\u2019s not this or it\u2019s not that and blah blah blah\u2026 and it was just a great feeling to go and make not only a great record but what we believe, we really truly believe is our best album ever. That remains to be seen obviously the fans and the critics alike will be the judge of that so to speak and they\u2019ll give us their opinion on that if it\u2019s accurate or not, we believe it to be true, we pop it in and listen to it and actually believe that.<\/p>\n

This is your tenth album, looking back do you ever go back and listen to your first record and think what you could\u2019ve done differently now?<\/strong>
\nOh yeah and we certainly would have, looking back on the first album we would\u2019ve definitely produced it ourselves, if we had the knowledge that we have now and we had it then we would\u2019ve produced it ourselves and I think we would\u2019ve fine-tuned things a little bit more, but those are the stepping stones, there are no regrets we really appreciate and value those years, 83, 84, 85, 86, we learned a lot through them and in them and we wouldn\u2019t change a thing. Obviously it lead to the success of the band and it blew open the doors and took us from clubs into arenas and number one on MTV\u00a0 and so much was accomplished back in those times and we wouldn\u2019t change a thing.<\/p>\n

I was a huge fan of \u2018Against The Law\u2019, I loved that album man but it seems to almost be the forgotten album, why do you think that is?<\/strong>
\nWell you know it\u2019s funny, it\u2019s a great album, it really is and again this is my opinion well not just my opinion but many fans opinions too, it\u2019s not Stryper even though were playing on it it\u2019s not classic Stryper. The only way I could really compare it is if someone with a real signature guitar tone and a real signature look threw those things away and made a killer album but his guitar tone\u2019s not the same and they don\u2019t look the same and they don\u2019t sound the same but I really like it. That\u2019s the best way to describe \u2018Against The Law\u2019 we kind of threw everything away and started from scratch and some people really like it because it\u2019s a good album, that\u2019s why they like it because it\u2019s produced by Tom Werman and there\u2019s some good songs on it, some good playing on it and it\u2019s solid but it\u2019s not classic Stryper. That\u2019s why I just recently did a list of my favourite to worst favourite album and that was at the bottom of the list believe it or not, top of the list was \u2018God Damn Evil\u2019 I think it absolutely blows \u2018Against The Law\u2019 out of the water I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any comparison. That\u2019s just my opinion but what do I know? *laughs*<\/p>\n

I saw you on your last trip here and was lucky enough to catch a Stryper bible, always wanted one\u2026<\/strong>
\nOh awesome. Yeah those are hard to come by we only throw out twenty or thirty per show and they\u2019re definitely hard to come by and everybody wants one and it\u2019s amazing to me how popular those are.<\/p>\n

So when do you think we might see you back in Australia?<\/strong>
\nYou know we\u2019re working on a japan trip right now, this year and if we go to Japan we\u2019re going to try and also swing over to Australia so hopefully that\u2019s going to go down as planned and if that does we\u2019ll be there this year. It\u2019s been way too long. If we make that happen we can\u2019t wait to see everybody, we really can\u2019t because we love Australia I mean Australia has always been one of our favourite places and the people there are just so awesome and we have a lot of great memories there and can\u2019t wait to come and rock with everybody.<\/p>\n

So sometimes it may be easy to say what\u2019s changed over the years but what would you say is the one thing that\u2019s stayed the same in your time making music?<\/strong>
\nI think the quality, you know Stryper has always been a band again love us or hate us who has gone the extra mile to give everybody quality and that goes for the stage show, that goes for the recordings, that goes for the song writing, everything that we do we try to give it our all and give people the best. I think we\u2019ve been pretty consistent with that and I think it\u2019s remained the same, yeah there are albums that aren\u2019t as good as others and blah blah blah but if you look back at our quality of work and the history of the catalogue you\u2019ll see that the songs are there and we\u2019ve always gone the extra mile to make it rock and I think that\u2019s always been there and it\u2019s still there too.<\/p>\n

What does the rest of 2018 have in store for the band?<\/strong>
\nWe\u2019re going to be touring throughout the year, a lot of touring, and we\u2019re obviously releasing this album \u2018God Damn Evil\u2019 on April 20th<\/sup> in The States anyway I don\u2019t know if it comes out earlier in Australia or a little later, but we\u2019re gonna do a lot of touring and also be wrapping up an acoustic album that we already recording, we\u2019re gonna be filming and putting more touches on a documentary that we\u2019re doing and going to be working on for the next two years like a full length Stryper documentary going back to the very beginning and it\u2019s gonna be awesome. Then I\u2019m planning on a solo album, starting on a solo album at the end of the year and then I\u2019m gonna start on an album with Joel Hoekstra at the beginning of next year.<\/p>\n

So you\u2019re not busy at all.<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m not. Nothing going on, man. Not yet but I\u2019m working on it *laughs*<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve done a lot over your time in the business, what\u2019s left for you to do that you haven\u2019t yet had the chance to do that you want to?<\/strong>
\nJust to keep doing it, keep doing what I do, I feel like I\u2019ve got the creative juices flowing and there\u2019s a lot of stuff coming out of me right now I want to just keep letting it come out over the next fifteen or twenty years and I hope that I can look back and say wow, I released another five or six solo albums and another eight or nine or ten Stryper albums, and a few more Sweet Lynch albums and another couple of books. I just want to keep doing what I do and try to inspire people through it and then at the end of my days I can look back and say wow maybe I helped a few people.<\/p>\n

How do you keep your voice at the level it\u2019s at? It must be hard work\u2026<\/strong>
\nYou know what, man, I just try to stay healthy that\u2019s the key. If I get sick I\u2019m in big trouble and I try hard to stay healthy and eat right, not eat a lot of sugar although I do I try not to and just keep from getting sick that\u2019s the goal.\u00a0 Then I sing every day, I\u2019m always singing out performing or out recording and working my voice which is a muscle obviously so working it out to try and keep it in shape is important, if I were to take a year off or whatever I\u2019d have a lot of trouble for two to three months trying to make it back to what I had. So it\u2019s just a matter of staying healthy and continuing to sing.<\/p>\n

So what are the touring plans like at the moment?<\/strong>
\nWe start in April we go to Italy, we come home for a few days and then go to Nashville and we start a ground run in May that goes all the way until the end of June, we\u2019ve got fly dates in July, August and September a bunch of them and then we do another ground run in October and November. The time we would go to Japan and potentially Australia I think that would be some time in like August I want to say.<\/p>\n

Lastly let\u2019s look ahead to the future, so finish this sentence for me, by the end of 2018 Stryper will\u2026<\/strong>
\nBy the end of 2018 Stryper will be enjoying the holidays and taking a long nap because we\u2019re gonna be busy throughout 18. *laughs* yeah man we\u2019re gonna do something different, usually we\u2019re working during the holidays but this album \u2018Gad Damn Evil\u2019 we started on it in October and we were working on it through the holidays and I\u2019ve gotta be honest with you I don\u2019t like to do things that way, I like to enjoy the holidays and just take some time off for December certainly, Thanksgiving on to Christmas, we didn\u2019t do that last year so this year we\u2019re gonna do that after the ground run in November we\u2019re gonna take some time off.<\/p>\n

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Essential information<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

From: <\/strong>Orange County, CA, USA<\/p>\n

Band members:<\/strong>\u00a0 Michael Sweet \u2013 lead vocals \/ guitar, Robert Sweet \u2013 drums, Oz Fox \u2013 guitar, Perry Richardson \u2013 bass guitar<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> \u00a0http:\/\/www.stryper.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Forthcoming Release:<\/strong> God Damn Evil \u2013 (April 20 \u2013 Frontiers Music)<\/p>\n

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